Article about 50 years of Mustang

[Kit Sullivan]

Something I wrote for an industry-magazine...

www.noln.net/article/august-2014/mustang-makes-it-happen

 

[mdan575]

Great article Kit,l really love how you tied the Mustang and lubrication advances through out its history into the article.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

Thanks

 

[Bill73Ragtop]

My cousin used to have a Meineke franchise for 20 yrs which he left and converted over into a general repair shop and small dealership. I stopped in yesterday to drop off a couple magazines I thought he would enjoy and he handed me the Oil & Lube magazine saying he had not had a chance to read it yet, but I might find it interesting. He has a 70 Boss 302 he has been leisurely restoring for the past 20 yrs. (It's all about the journey!)

As I'm paging thru it I see a pic of your 71 and your name and told him "I know who this guy is!, He participates in the 7173Mustangs forum." I mentioned your car 71 429 had over 300K on it. I also recall you spent some time in WNY back in the day.

Anyway, it's a well written article and an interesting slant on the 50 years of Mustangs. Nice job.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

I see you are from Buffalo. I lived there for 15 years...my partner and I built and ran all the quick-lube shops for Delta-Sonic back then. Small world...

 

[Bill73Ragtop]

Kit: we probably know each other....I used to hang out on occasion with a guy with a Red 429 71 Mach at the occasional cruise and show who said he worked for Delta Sonic as a 'trainer'. Depending on the year, I might have had a Pewter 71 M-code Mach or (in 1994) purchased my 73 vert and started cruising with that. I live in West Seneca so the southtowns were the usual meet 'n greet.

Not so much a small world since there are only so many degrees of separation and if you spent time in Bflo you are connected with the world.....LOL !!

 

[matrixx]

Too cool. I read that in our noln mag at the shop. We've had a few customers in the rides section which is alway cool to look at.

 

[Kit Sullivan]

Bill,

I lived in West Seneca...Kirkwood off of Seneca, near the 400. We probably ran into each other a few times.

I also had a red '69 Z-28 back then, you might have seen me in that car at some cruise nights also.

I used to do the Tuesday-night cruise at the "Mr Rookies" batting cages on Transit going into Lockport...the Mustang was there all the time.

 

[Bill73Ragtop]

We'll close out the thread on a couple of interesting notes. My cousin's shop is on Seneca (at Columbia) which is 1-block from Kirkwood, so you probably know him or stopped in during your years while you lived there. Our most interesting conversation might have been about that you told me about Delta Sonic (at the time) was off-the-grid running on gensets. I was installing close to a hundred new generator back up systems in WNY for Verizon at the time and found it fascinating that Benderson Development was running these operations solely on generators... These days are not longer that case since they have gone full bonzo food, cleaning, you-name-it service center. And they are packed 24-7 with customers,,so they are connected to the Grid.

I'll pass along greetings to those of us who encountered / worked with you back in the day while you were here in WNY. We always wondered what happened and where you moved off to.

Bill

 

[Kit Sullivan]

Bill,

Delta Sonic is still running the generators at its big locations: Transit, Maple, Walden, Niagara Falls, Greece, Chili and Henrietta.

I talk to several people there all the time...all that stuff is still in place, and more.

The locations each have 6 profit centers: gas, wash, oil, quickserve, full detail and c-store. They run 3 100,000-horse generators at each of those locations. They have never really been "off the grid", which I think is illegal anyway. They make thier own electricity, sell reserves back to the power company.

They also used collected waste oil from the lube shops to power waste-oil heaters to keep the shops heated and to run heaters for the underground heated water lines. All finished concrete on each of the big locations has heated concrete. Ever wonder why the gas islands are never covered in snow when every other business is?

It certainly takes a lot of money to put these systems in place, but no one ever accused the Bendersons of not having any money!

Ronny Benderson, owner of Delta Sonic (Nate Benderson's kid) is actually a great guy to work for...always treated me fairly and with great respect.

For someone who wants to work hard for a living and get ahead in life, Delta Sonic is a great opportunity. I loved working there.

 

[Doug The Dog]

Just received my copy of National Oil & Lube News Thursday! Great article! Will you autograph my copy?

-Travis